Cabrera Blasts Fourth Straight Homer, Fifth In Six Games
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
Miguel Cabrera has done it again, homering for the fourth straight game, and the fifth in six days. His selection as American League Player of the Week earlier that day did not need validation, but as usual, Cabrera provided it anyway.
In this recent streak, the Detroit Tigers slugger homered twice off New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, known as the best closer of all time. Of course, Cabrera is clearly in his prime and Rivera, after nearly two decades in the majors, is not. Still, Rivera has a 2.44 ERA through 47 appearances and has only given up five home runs this season, and two of those were to Cabrera.
Monday's victim was Chicago White Sox starter Chris Sale, who has a 2.73 ERA, lower than that of Tigers ace and All-Star Game starter Max Scherzer. Sale had only given up 12 homers in over 150 innings before Cabrera went deep.
Cabrera is now batting .366 with 37 home runs and 111 RBIs. With more than 40 games to play in the regular season, Cabrera has already collected the third-highest number of homers in his career, after 38 in 2010 and 44 in 2012.
No player has won the batting triple crown in consecutive seasons, but Cabrera still has an outside shot. He has far and away the highest batting average in the American League, and his performance Monday allowed him to surpass the Baltimore Orioles' Chris Davis in the category of RBIs, but Davis still has a daunting lead in home runs, with 43.
